I'll Be Waiting
by hatsumomo95
Summary: When he left he said, "I'll be back for you, don't worry." It's been almost fourteen years and I'm still waiting for him.
1. Chapter 1

Chapter One – Age Four

I first met Skadi when I was four years old. At the time I was home most of the time due to an epidemic going around, some type of airborne crap. During that time my mother and I had moved to the country side of the city, so there wasn't much to do anyways. I'd sit in my room and read, go feed the horses, or just go exploring while my mother went to work and my babysitter tied herself up with her boyfriend. One day, my mom had to work overtime so she called my babysitter, who shall remain anonymous, over to care for me. She didn't show and I couldn't care less. All I needed to survive was water, chips, and Lunchables.

As the day turned to night, thick storm clouds rolled into the sky. Having read a book about tornados being common, unwanted visitors during storms, I went out to go find the storm cellar. I hadn't gotten far enough to know where the cellar would be located. I walked around outside until I was fighting the wind, literally. I threw punches but it was nothing to it. It kept pushing me back until I fell backwards, hitting my head on the ground. Everything suddenly looked different. It was as if I was experiencing a slow death from a concussion that didn't fully knock me out like it should have.

I laid there, in a daze, until I saw a person in the distance. They staggered a bit and then, in no time, they were right beside me. He breathed heavily and reeked of blood. Blood made me queasy and want to puke, but I would never actually do that. I would suck it up. "Are you okay?" My voice was shaky and barely noticeable as the storm siren sounded. "You shouldn't be out here." His voice boomed loudly, even through the bashee like scream of the siren. He tried to get up, shaking. I stood up with difficulty as the wind grew stronger and the sky greener. "Let's get you inside." He picked me up in one swoop and carried me off inside the two story brick house with wrap around porch and garage.

Inside we could hear the wind and sirens but we also couldn't hear them. We had tuned them out. Upstairs in my bathroom he was cleaning himself off, letting the water run – wasteful. I sat on my daybed hoping that my mother was safe. As I prayed, I had failed to notice that he was looking at me in a way that I had only seen from my mother. She called it her 'awww' look. I snapped my head back, feeling a presence in the room with me and there he was. He noticed that I was looking at him with intent, "Ah, sorry." "It's okay," I smiled brightly, "my mom gives me that same look." "Oh." He sounded sad, kinda depressed too, "What's your name?" "Skadi." I tried to smother a laugh but I failed to do so. "What's so funny?" I told the truth, "Your accent and your name. Skadi is the name of a Norse Goddess." "You're pretty smart for a little kid." "I know." I wasn't trying to gloat and he understood. "What's your name?" "Elisabeth, after my great grandmother (A/N – that's my real great grandmother's name)." He smiled, showing blindingly white teeth and…fangs? "Are you a monster?" My eyes showed fear and it wasn't what he wanted out of me. He got down on bended knee and held me with his cold hands, "No, I'm not a monster, far from it actually, but my people are considered monsters because of what the most notorious have done. One day you will understand and when you do I'll let you be the judge of whether the definition is befitting of my character or not." I nodded my head silently, only understanding him partially, "Can we go hide in the cellar now?" He smiled, this time not showing his teeth and fangs, "Of course."

We sat in the dingy cellar, which we accessed from the kitchen, holding each other…more like Skadi holding me. Up above we heard the sound of a train rolling by and I knew something was wrong. "That's what a tornado sounds like." Skadi answered my question before I could ask it. "I can read your mind." "Amazing." I finally got a word in. "You're pretty smart kid." "Thank you." "And polite!" We talked and talked and talked until we realized that there wasn't a sound coming from the ground floor. "Stay here, I'll go check." When he said that my heart sunk, I had grown attached to him in such a short amount of time.

Time went on, maybe thirty minutes, and before I knew it I was climbing the rickety wooden staircase back upstairs. When I got there Skadi was nowhere in sight, the house was nowhere…it was destroyed to bits. I climbed over pieces of debris, calling out his name. "Skadi! Skadi! Please! Skadi!" I kept calling his name until I found him, standing infront of a car. "Skadi!" I ran up to him from behind but he didn't move, he was frozen, "Skadi?" I came around to face him, his emotionless face. Puzzled, I turn to see a car with a woman inside…my mom. "Mommie?" Skadi holds onto my arm, holding me back, "Mommy!" "Elisabeth!" Skadi tried his best to contain me, to hold me back from the car smashed by a tree and covered in electrical wires.

In the stables, which somehow escaped being destroyed, Skadi attempted to soothe me by rocking. "It'll be okay." He repeated it over and over again. "It won't be, my mom's dead." My eyes stung badly as I tried to stop myself from crying. "It will be." "How do you know?" "Because I'll come back for you. I promise that I won't forget about you, that I'll come back." I sniffled. "You promise." "I promise." "I'll be waiting."


	2. Chapter 2

Chapter Two – Age Nine

After the storm, Skadi stayed with me until a police car pulled up to the demolished house. "Remember." I tugged on his ragged shirt, pulling him down to my height. He smiled and ran his hand through my hair, "I will." With those final words he disappeared. I cried out loud, missing him. Police eventually found me and were in awe at the fact that I was even still alive. At the closest police station, thirty minutes away, the officers called all of my relatives. None of them wanted me, even my own grandmother. I was placed in an orphanage where I was adopted by a couple who lived in the area.

The years went by fast for my parents, their business was booming, but for me, it was the slowest of years. I had missed Skadi so much that I had driven myself insane. My mother showed concern for me by sending me to see a psychologist. All she had to say was that I was adjusting to life without my imaginary friend. I told her several times that he was not an imaginary friend, that he was real. "Elisabeth." Mother used my name only when she was tired of my tantrums. Otherwise she'd call me Sweetie like any other mother. Our therapy visits went like so for months until I got sick and couldn't go…then I started faking sick. "Your father and I have to run to the office for a while; will you be okay?" I nodded at my mother as she stood in the doorway from under my large and plush comforter. "Okay. You know our numbers and the office number if you need anything." I watched her leave but I remained still until I heard her leave in the Range. I breathed a sigh of relief and turned over on my side. My mind wandered for a bit before it rested on the distant thought of Skadi. I fought hard for him and he wasn't even there to praise me. It hurt, it hurt real bad. My eyes began to fill with tears and cascade down my face. I sniffled and felt my tears being wiped away.

I looked up to see Skadi sitting on the bed, wiping away my tears with a worried look on his face. "What's wrong? I know you're not really sick so you better have a good excuse for having tears." A hump developed in my throat and as I began to talk nothing came out, which made me cry even more. "It's okay." He hugged me tightly and for the first time I noticed how muscular he was, like some type of god. "I thought vampires were supposed to be scrawny." I said it so quickly that I hadn't realized what I said until Skadi was laughing hysterically, "Not all vampires are scrawny." He sighed and sat me up but I leaned into him, "I missed you…I thought you forgot about me." He ran his fingers through my shoulder length brunette hair and patted my head gently, "I could never forget about you, I've just been busy." "Busy drinking other people's blood?" "Where do they teach you guys this crap, excuse my French." "Crap isn't French, most of our curse words came from the Vikings…and they weren't French." Skadi looked at me in awe but I looked at him in a different way. My heart was racing in the way it did whenever I thought about him. "Well then. Not all vampires drink blood and what makes you think that I do?" He was questioning my faith in him, "It was an assumption…a foolish assumption." I mumbled the last few words and buried my face in my knees. "It's okay," He rubbed my back and pulled me into his lap, "If we didn't make assumptions we'd never know the truth, what's right and or what's wrong." "I'm sorry Skadi." "It's okay Elisabeth, I still love you."

We stayed in one another's embrace until we heard the garage open. I wanted Skadi to stay longer. When he got up to leave, smoothing out his wrinkled clothing, I tugged on his clothing, "Don't leave." He turned his head and smiled, unknowing showing his fangs…they didn't scare me, "I'll be back." "You sound like the Terminator." I was whining but he knew it was necessary whining and not whining-because-I-can. "The next time I come to see you I will bring you home, that is, if you still love me." "I could never stop loving you." Though I was young, I understood emotion and the connotations of words and how powerful and meaningful the word 'love' can be and mean to different people, especially those you care most about. I stood on the bed, trying to match my height to Skadi's incredible one. Holding him by the collar, I pulled him in and kissed him on the cheek. He did the same to me. His kiss was soft, like Egyptian cotton sheets. I locked my brown eyes with his black ones and closed them; I couldn't bear to see him leave me again.

Age Eighteen

I sit in Calculus, tapping my Cajun shrimp colored index finger on the dark wooden desk to the music playing on my phone. The grey haired tiny woman of a substitute is struggling to control my rowdy fellow seniors who are, well, beyond control. The class of 2014 runs the entire school and the area, we are Warriors. "Class! Please be quiet, just for five minutes!" I snicker at her useless pleading and shake my head, "What a pro," I mumble. Standing on top of my desk and stick my fingers in my mouth and whistle. They shut up. "Listen to what the lady has to say and then she'll leave us alone! She only wants five minutes of your damn attention!" I jump down my desk and sit, the rest of the class follows suite. "Thank you. I was trying to tell you all that there is a new student." A series of 'ooohs' and 'ahhhs' go around before it goes back to deadly silence, "His name is Scotty McDermott," this time it's only 'ooohs' from the ladies and a few gay guys, "He's from Norway so treat him with care." All the girls give each other the same look, the –oh-we-will look. The tiny woman opens the door and lets in a freaking god. He stands in front of the class and has our full attention. "Hey." Dang he has a deep voice. "Hey." We give him a dreamy one. "Hmmm, you can sit next to Elisabeth seeing as she has a desk to herself." All the smiles in the room turn to grunges but do I care? Heck no! Mr. Hot stuff is sitting next to me! He looks at me with his ice blue, almost clear, eyes and smiles. The class goes back to being wild and out of control. "I told you I'd come back for you." My eyes widen in shock. No way! This can't be, "Skadi?" He nods his head, "In the flesh." This is going to be fun.


	3. Chapter 3

Chapter Three

This is going to be fun. Nawt! How can I tell Skadi that he'll have to be the one waiting this time around? Sigh. My foster parents, now official parents, have me in an arranged marriage. He's a good guy, really good. I've known him for a while but I don't think that's the reason my parents chose him; His name is Jake Gossett and the Gossett's are loaded but some of the nicest people around surprisingly. We sit in silence, staring at each other, until everyone leaves for the day. "I have something to tell you." I'm not the best at sounding optimistic and cheerful. "Go on." I bite my lip and grunt loudly; I wish I didn't have to do this, "I'm getting married." I hope he doesn't go all crazy vampire on me, "What?" "I'm engaged. I've been this way for two years." His head is in his hands, "Skadi?" I reach out to touch him and he shuns my hand. "I'm sorry! I tried to wait for you as long as I could…but now you'll have to do the waiting, that is, if you still want me." He sighs and sits up straight, "I've never wanted you," Ouch, "I've always needed you." Aw! Sweet! "Aw," I wrap my arms around his neck, "I've always needed you too. You were never a want…but there are some things I want from you."

From the class we walk to the student parking lot and head towards a large crowd. "Really? What if there's a fight going on?" "There isn't." "How do you know?" "I just do." We make our way through the crowd to the center where a Lamborghini sits prettily. "What the heck." "You like?" "It's yours?" I say it a bit too loudly. The whole bunch turns to look at Skadi as he nods, "Yup." He escorts me to the passenger side, opens and closes the door for me. Inside I marvel at the design. I've never been in a car worth just as much as my bedroom in design…Yes, my bedroom was professionally designed. Skadi slides in smoothly, closes the door and at the same time finds time to kiss me, "Cinnamon and mint." "AXE." Skadi drives out the parking lot and to wherever. I don't care, as long as I'm with him I don't mind where we go. After an eternity, we pull up to a small shopping center. "What are we doing here?" "Getting something that I should have given you a long time ago." We walk around for a bit, eating gelato and looking at clothes. As we leave Forever21 we make a sharp turn into a jeweler. "May I help you two with anything?" "No thank you we're…" "Yes actually, I'm here to pick something up." He walks away with the male and winks at me as if to tell me 'I've got something planned, just wait'. I look around for a bit before the emeralds capture my attention.

"Looks like I made the right decision." I turn around to see Skadi and the jeweler. "Huh?" Don't tell me. He gets down on one knee and takes my hand. The few people in the store marvel at the sight before them. "Elisabeth Marie Randle, love me forever." A tear slips through unnoticed, ruining my perfect line of eyeliner, "Yes you fool." He opens the box to reveal a simple ring with a rock of an emerald in the center and diamonds down the band. Tears overflow as he slips the ring on my hand. I'm not crying because I'm happy, these are sad tears. I have one hell of a vampire and a sweet teenage boy. I don't know what to do! "Stop crying my sweet." He kisses my forehead and holds me, making me cry even more.

Skadi takes me home to my parents' estate, fully equipped with lake and horses. My eyes are red and slightly puffy, my head hurts, and I just feel like a complete wreck. He opens the door for me and kisses me goodbye, "Farewell my love." "Farewell." I'm so out of it that I don't even see my fiancé standing on the porch. "Lissa?" I look up and there he is, European model perfect, with his messy brown hair with gold highlights and hazel eyes and chiseled arms screaming out in a rock band t-shirt too small for him. "Hey Ryan." He doesn't seem surprised by the scene he just witnessed but then again, he's good at hiding emotion. "Tired?" "Very much so," without warning, he picks me up and carried me inside. Up the sweeping staircase he takes me to my bedroom colored in a soothing cool bluish grey. I rest my head on his shoulder and cling to him. I need reality. In reality I cannot live forever with my vampire fiancé…this isn't the Twilight Saga. "Do you want me to stay?" He lays me down on the king size canopy bed draped with light white satin fabric to match the curtains over my classic French doors that lead to the balcony. "Yes."

I wake to complete darkness and warmth. I roll onto my back and sigh heavily. Skadi or Ryan, Skadi or Ryan, Skadi or Ryan! UGH! I sit up and run my fingers through my hair. My eyes roam around and land on my balcony. I climb out of bed and walk outside. The light breeze feels good and rests my nerves but my mind is not at peace. It won't be at peace for a while. I sit down on one of the chairs as Ryan comes out. "What's wrong?" "Nothing." "You're an open book, tell me." "You know who." Ryan knows the whole story. He was the first person I just really told and confided in. "So he was Mr. Lambo." I laugh a little, "Yup…he also gave me this." I show Ryan the ring and he examines it, "It's beautiful." We don't have rings. We didn't want people at school to think anything since relationships are kinda taboo around there. "I know and it makes me stumped." "About…" "About you and him." "Oh," I can tell he's sad, "Well, do what you know is best." "And if that was to marry him and not you?" "I would be in no place to argue with your decision." He's really hurting. I get up and join him on the other lounge chair. Taking his hand in mine I kiss it, "You know I love you." He smiles, earnestly and not with his model smile that just kills me and sends me into fangirl mode, "You love everyone Lissa." "And so do you Ry, don't deny it." "No use in denying the truth." He's right, no use in denying the truth.


End file.
